to think WLI have given many people huge health improvements despite the remarkable number of people on MN who are anti WLI for no good reason

[MountainStorm]

There seem to be endless anti WLI threads on here filled with misinformation, faux concern, and thinly disguised jibes at overweight people. I don’t really understand the motivation but that’s another issue.

On the other hand, many people have seen huge improvements in their health, confidence and wellbeing from using WLI. I certainly have.

So I wanted to ask AIBU to say that WLI have given many people huge health improvements and to ask what health improvements have you personally experienced on WLI?

For me

• been able to reduce antidepressant medication
• improved fitness, don’t get so tired or out of breath when walking

noone chooses to become an alcoholic. Two people can start off buying the same drinks in the same pub and one person will be fine and stop after a couple and some will not. Yes there are choices at play but it’s naive to think those of us who aren’t alcoholics have just made better choices with the same starting point.

Same with food, mental health, drugs.

“just be more like me” has never been a viable option.

just eat less
just worry less
just cheer up
just don’t drink.

none of it works

We know that food manufacturers invest huge amounts of money into making their food addictive. They're not morally neutral providers of a service.

And they wouldn’t spend billions of pounds on marketing if that marketing was not successful.

Typo - should have been decades.

Anyone who takes these is part of the experiment and don't trot out the tired old "been used for diabetics for years safely" argument.

There's a much much much wider demographic using them, formulations are "improving" all the time and they haven't been tested against a lot of other drugs for contraindications. Many drugs have been proven unsafe many years after being accepted as safe.

The truth is we simply don't know.

I am keen to hear good news stories too! For those on them did you just speak to you GP?

No need to speak to your GP. You will fill in an online consultation form to give your medical history and most pharmacies write to the GP once prescribed.

Nobody says that obesity is not caused by over consumption.

But saying “just eat less” is like telling an alcoholic to simply “drink less” or telling an anoerexic to “just eat more” or telling somebody with a gambling addiction to simply “stop spending once you hit a limit”.

It’s oversimplifying the solution to a complex disorder.

@JHound no, nothing to do with my NHS GP at all. The vast majority of people taking WLI are getting a private prescription from an online pharmacy. There are well known names like Asda, Boots, Lloyds, Superdrug etc that offer them as well as a large number of other online only pharmacies. Your local independent pharmacy may also offer them although often more expensively than the online ones.

Online consultation form with your GP or directly with the weight loss medication companies?

Thank you for this. I will get to it this week.

dp lost loads of weight on them and came off them and put it all back on very very quickly! So I think they work brilliantly but some people may never be able to come off them

With the pharmacy. It's nothing to do with the GP.

You can hide this thread very easily.

I've lost 5.5 stone on mounjaro and i have a BMI of 19 now. I weight lift 5 days a week as well as lots of walking, running and yoga. I eat a high-ish calorie diet to be able to fuel these workouts. I'm 5ft 8 and eat about 2200 to 2500 calories a day. I currently take a 5mg maintenance dose once a week. I plan to do this until I have maintained my weight and life style for at least 3 years but we'll see.

That’s a weight loss thing generally and not unique to those taking WLI.

Ohhhh. Not Waiting List Initiatives then. Oops.

People who lose weight put it on again if their eating habits don’t change. This is not specific to WLI and anyone who has struggled with obesity will have gained and lost weight several times over.

so it’s not really an argument against them.

People either need to stay on them long term, or be able to get to a stage where they can manage to maintain without them. Either way, why is that an argument against them.

If the weight goes on when you stop the drugs are clearly doing something to your body that it can’t do alone, even if that’s not feeling hungry.

same can be said for antidepressants, blood pressure meds, even HRT.

why all the pearl clutching about these unless it is still coming from a ‘you deserve to be fat’ argument.

I was not prescribed mine through the GP but my GP did say it was the best thing I could do for my health and they consider the drugs to be a total game changer in treating a huge range of chronic illnesses.

For all the slim WLI haters:

www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c2084q9079po

They do seem to be the cure for obesity and that is wonderful.

I do worry about slim people using them to stay underweight and I have friends that are doing that. That's a separate issue though.

What?! LOADS of people say it. On repeat!

Just like the pp says, there have been countless threads where people absolutely insist that they barely eat yet can't lose weight, followed by a pile on of support from people ranting that eating too much is not the issue.

Obviously the psychology behind why people eat far more than they need is complex. But I think WLI's have indeed proven that from a physical perspective and in the vast majority, people who are overweight simply eat too much. And WLI's are the invisible injectible version of stapling your mouth shut or locking yourself in the attic and being fed rations - of course people will lose weight.

The article a pp linked mentioning set point theory is interesting. Considering maintenance is likely to be the 'problem' with WLI's I think it would be great for reasearch to focus on set point to try and work out if there was a 'safe' time limit to come off maintenance doses without a high risk of piling it all back on.

They don't read WLI threads. HTH

I'm happy for the people it helps.
I could benefit myself but I am prone to getting very nauseous so suspect I couldn't hack them. At this time I cannot afford them anyway.
However, I am always sceptical of magic bullets. I am worried secondary effects will pop up down the line.

There is a gigantic psychologogical research project needing to be done into just why a percentage of the population get so foaming mouthed furious about WLI. Its truly bizarre.
I have never seen this behavior with respect to other conditions and other drugs. The anger, the distain, the faux concern. Its fascinating why a drug which helps people should trigger such strong negative reactions in people who don't take it.

My guess is that they are losing a section of society to feel superior to because they are no longer fat and just as slim as you. But worry not poppets, you can still feel superior by calling them cheats. You are still special.

@Ukefluke I can give you my reasons for being very wary of WLI.

1. lifelong dependency that's just another form of addiction and everything that comes with it.
2. you need to be morbidly obese to get it on the NHS, leading to people not trying to lose weight the conventional way.
3. self funding I really wonder why? Is there is something we are not told and healthcare providers do not want the responsibility? Or is it simply costs & the morality of lining big pharma companies pockets.
4. secondary impact on the food industry- they still get away with selling junk as healthy while decent fruit & veg costs an absolute fortune!
5. it's new and we have no idea about the long term health implications.
6. for some people, it takes away accountability for their own health.
7. my own observation: FIL (78) was put on them for his diabetes... he's lost weight and aged beyond recognition in the space of 3 months. Now this could be a natural occurrence but I would like to see some research into this.

PS: when it first started I was anti vaping, now we know it's not the miracle cure to smoking we were made to believe it is...